Teen Choice Awards face ‘rigged’ allegations after Cameron Dallas, other tweets
What happens when the Teen Choice Awards start to face backlash from their own teen voters? They most likely become a show that has a hard time getting goodwill back for their 2015 show … at least for now. We still feel like the moment that other favorites are nominated much of this furor about the show being “rigged” will blow over.
Here’s where the chaos last night started. Vine star Cameron Dallas, who won an award on the night, posted (and later deleted) a message on his Twitter account explaining that he has been informed he was a winner prior to the voting ended:
“It’s funny how they told me I won the Viner Award 6 days before the voting ended and made the runners up still tweet to vote for them.”
Another Vine celebrity in Matthew Espinosa chimed in with similar thoughts, and then One Direction, while accepted their awards, were spotted in outfits that they were seen wearing at a New York event before the end of the voting window.
Finally, add all of this to the message that aired at the end of the show:
“Winners for the Teen Choice Awards are determined using the votes cast on TeenChoiceAwards.com. Votes are tabulated electronically and winners are determined based on the nominees in each category with the highest number of eligible votes. [Producers at] Teenasaurus Rox reserves the right to choose the winner from the top four vote getters…”
The reality of the situation is that none of this is new, and awards shows have been using similar tactics for a long time. They have to tell winners often in advance to ensure that they can attend the show, and they often highlight the ones who do turn up on the broadcast. Also, this show in particular thrives on social traffic, so encouraging nominees to tweet about it also is little surprise.
We do feel bad for those who are now just realizing that this is the way that this world works. We don’t believe that the TCAs or other award shows designate the winner of any category without any consideration for the actual votes, but they do often emphasize putting on a good show and those who plan on attending first and foremost. It’s like a twist where America votes on “Big Brother”: It’s not staged, but producers often set things up in a way so that America will pick the most favorable option by a landslide.